Parishioner - Easter joy. Easter joy

About Easter joy 3

Many people, even Christians, do not know this feeling. What is Easter joy, how is it felt, how is it experienced?

Easter joy- this is a special, grace-filled state of soul, born at the culmination of the Easter service and Easter Communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. It is difficult to convey this joy in words, because this is not an ordinary human feeling, but a state of grace, mystical, all-encompassing. This is joy in Christ, in the Risen Christ! Only God can endow a person with this blissful, sublime, rapturous state, and it takes possession not only of the heart, but of a person’s entire being.

Easter joy is accompanied by absolute, unshakable confidence that Christ has risen, that the whole world has now changed, that some incredible, incomprehensible miracle has happened, that now each of us has found the possibility of salvation together with Christ. This is a stunning, incomparable state that is not forgotten.

Here is how Orthodox Christians describe the state of Easter joy:

Marina
It's finished! It was my first time at a service on Easter night! I took communion! Now I know what Easter joy is ! I didn't expect this myself. We couldn’t fit everyone into our small church, and we stood on the street for an hour, praying (we have zero with a cold wind, but it doesn’t matter!) At 12 the bells rang and it began procession with "Christ is Risen"! And our harmonious choir: Truly He is Risen! Then - again service on the street. And then the priest invited everyone who wanted to take communion to the temple. I was afraid I wouldn’t get in, people rushed and almost knocked the door down. Afterwards there is a service, and singing and the joy of Communion. Everyone received communion!
I used to be afraid to go home alone at night. We had no transport for about three in the morning. And then she walked all the way, smiled and sang: “Christ is risen... trampling down death by death and granting life to those in the tombs!”
And now I’ve been in this joyful state for several days! Even those around him noticed the changes. Some kind of spirituality suddenly opened up in me. I began to rejoice for others, empathize and give gifts from the heart. I want to kiss the whole world.

Natusya
I also attended the service on Easter night for the first time this year and received Communion! I completely understand your situation and I've been singing all day today: Christ is risen from dead by death trampling death and giving life to those in the tombs!

Anna
And welcome me to your joyful company. I never thought that Easter joy is not easy beautiful words
Although.. I didn’t think about many things in Orthodoxy that should be understood almost literally..

Sasha
My my sincere congratulations! I have the same feelings . Christ is Risen!

Catherine
Before the Cross, they brought the Holy Fire, which after the service everyone took to their homes.
The whole church took communion, and afterward there were shared tables, breaking the fast...
In 15 years, this is probably my first time like this. Easter. Filled with such fullness of joy,
I even stood throughout the entire service without noticing a sore back or legs...
God's mercy!

Nowadays, there are almost no scientists left who believe that Jesus of Nazareth did not live in Palestine and did not preach His teachings in the 20s. I century AD Modern science established that the story of the evangelists is based on historical facts. And the further it develops, the clearer it becomes how accurately Mark, Matthew, Luke and John recounted the events they described. Jesus was crucified and died on the cross, what happened, more likely, April 7, 30 AD, on the eve of Easter, as the Evangelist John tells about it (19:14-31). That is, the question regarding which science is powerless is the question of the resurrection of Christ from the dead. Science is powerless to either prove or disprove this fact, and therefore each person is free to understand the message that “Christ has risen from the dead, trampling down death by death” in his own way. This is the main content of the faith of every Christian: “I believe in Jesus Christ... who suffered, was buried and rose again on the third day,” says the Creed. The last chapters of each of the four Gospels tell us that the disciples of Jesus were overcome by deep sadness after the death of their Teacher. They hoped that Jesus would bring deliverance, the expectation of which the people of Israel had been living for more than a thousand years by that time, and He died shamefully on the cross. The women who visited the tomb at the dawn of the first day of the week said that it was empty, that they saw angels announcing that Jesus was alive, but at first these stories did not convince the disciples of anything. A disciple, about whom it is said that Jesus especially loved him (perhaps it was John the Theologian), entered the empty tomb, “entered and believed.” Other disciples also come to faith, and each one goes to it in his own way. The Gospels tell us that the resurrected Christ appears to the disciples, but this, as Matthew reports, does not convince everyone: some people regard these phenomena with doubt. Faith is something that cannot be taught; a person is led to it only by his personal mystical experience. Little by little, “sorrow turns to joy.”

The word “joy” itself is one of the key ones, i.e. constantly repeated in the Gospel. “I bring you good news of great joy,” the angel exclaims at the beginning of Luke’s Gospel, telling the shepherds that Christ was born in Bethlehem. Christ Himself tells the disciples about the joy that happens in heaven when a sinner feels the need to repent and become different. In a farewell conversation with the apostles, no more than an hour before He was taken into custody, consoling the disciples who felt that something terrible was approaching, Christ said: “When a woman gives birth, she has sorrow, for her hour has come; when the child gives birth, she no longer remembers the sorrow for joy that a person was born into the world. And now you have sorrow, but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you” (John 16:21-22). “Rejoice,” says the risen Christ to the myrrh-bearing women who came to the tomb with incense to anoint the body of Jesus with it; “Rejoice always,” the Apostle Paul instructs his interlocutors. The main Christian virtue, love, is closely connected with joy.

Joy illuminates the entire Easter service from beginning to end.

This day that the Lord has made

Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

This verse from Psalm 117 was included in the Easter service from the oldest Easter Liturgy that has not reached us. Christ, rejected, crucified and dead, rose powerfully from the grave and filled the whole world with joy, or “gave joy to the world,” as John of Damascus says, who at the beginning of the 8th century compiled that Easter canon, which is now sung on Easter night in every Orthodox church. On Easter night, Orthodox Christians read the beginning of the Gospel of John (“In the beginning was the Word...”) in as many languages ​​as possible, thereby reminding us that the apostles spread the good news of the Resurrection throughout the world. Catholics read the story of the Resurrection (John 20:1–9). In the ancient Easter Liturgy, the words of Jesus about the good Shepherd were read: “I am the good Shepherd, the Shepherd kind soul He lays down his own for the sheep... I lay down My life for the sheep... No one took it from Me, but I lay it down Myself. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again” (John 10:17-18). The good shepherd knows his sheep by name and therefore calls to him not all together, but each one individually. “After all, faith does not consist in the fact that a person follows customs, institutions and traditions or observes certain rituals. She lives in his heart, in its very depths. Just as the good shepherd is always with the sheep, unlike the hireling who “sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away,” so the risen Christ remains invisibly among people “always until the end of the age.”

The canon of John of Damascus is completely permeated with Easter joy:

Having seen Your Son and God risen

Rejoice with the angels, O blessed one,

She who “rejoices” first

As the culprit of universal joy

I heard, Our Lady of All Immaculate.

The angel exclaimed to the Blessed One:

"Pure Virgin, rejoice."

And I repeat: “Rejoice,

For Your Son has risen

On the third day from the grave,

Raising the dead."

People, rejoice.

Easter, joy to each other

Let's hug, oh Easter.

Easter joy is a special joy. Here is how the modern French theologian Alain Kilisi writes about this: “Easter joy is not loud, it is a joy that comes from within. It is useless to clap your hands and shout “hurray” to talk about how it fills us, because the joy that is given to us in Easter days, is given into the depths of our hearts, it cannot be conveyed. Look at Mary Magdalene. That morning she was plunged into grief. She came to watch over the dead and cry; she constantly repeats to people and angels the same phrase: “They have taken my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.” This phrase expresses the sorrowful experience of a believer in its entirety - life without God is unbearable. When Jesus Himself comes to comfort her, but does not reveal himself, as always happens during apparitions, she does not recognize Him until Jesus calls her by name. And immediately her heart is filled like a wave with joy, happiness and peace. She wants to hug Him, but the Lord does not allow her to do this. She will have to be content with the fact that she saw Him, heard Him, touched Him, but for a moment. She will retain only the joy that is now inside her heart, although, of course, this joy, which filled and illuminated her from within, is enormous. But it is difficult to convey it. Mary doesn’t know how to tell about this: “I saw the Lord, and He told me this.” So is ours own experience. Our joy is great, our heart is overwhelmed, but what can we say to someone who was not there when He appeared so that he will understand this?”

Faith is not based on political, philosophical or other beliefs; it lives in the depths of the human heart and illuminates it from the inside. “In the evening on that day, the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the middle and said to them, “Peace be with you!” (John 20:19). This is Easter joy.

In the hall there is an exhibition “Easter Joy” (works of children and parents). On the walls there are panels “Kulich-city”, “Temple”, a large Easter egg, a belfry with ceramic bells.
Children sit in a semicircle with their parents.

The troparion is performed.

Leading:
People call Easter a bright holiday. Just as the sun shines and warms us, so the light of the soul and the joy of the heart come from our Savior. From heart to heart, from soul to soul, hurry up the joyful news - Christ is Risen! He rose again once in order to forever illuminate the world with the light of His Resurrection. We are celebrating more than just memories today. “The night is long and dark - swallowed up, gloomy death is hidden, Christ appears before everyone brighter than the sun. The Lord creates the unexpected out of the impossible,” says St. John Chrysostom. IN bright joy Heaven and earth, angels and people merge into one. And how can one not rejoice on the great and holy day of the Resurrection of Christ!

Children sing the song “A miracle is above all miracles.”

Child reader:
After a long shit
Having received communion on Passion Street,
Orthodox Christians with excitement
People march to the service at night.
With eggs and Easter cakes,
Happy Easter and candles.
With a religious procession, with friendly singing
We are celebrating Sunday.
The sun dances and plays,
God blesses all creation,
From earth to heaven
Everyone sings Christ is Risen!

A child sings the song “Song about Angels.” (“Holidays in Sunday school.” - M., 2000.)

Children come up to the belfry and read:

Child reader 1:
A miracle above all miracles - Christ is Risen!
Death is gone and fear has disappeared - Christ is Risen!
Choirs of angels from heaven glorify God's cross.

Child reader 2:
The Lord saved us from death - Christ is Risen!
The Kingdom of God is among us - Christ is Risen!
Rejoice and praise - love reigns today!
Christ is Risen - Truly Risen!

Children senior group with bells in their hands they sing and ring.

The bells are ringing, ringing, ding-dong,
It's here bright time, ding-dong,
And music pours from heaven, ding-dong,
Christ is risen! Christ is risen!

Children preparatory group play the bells of the children's belfry.

Leading:
Christ is Risen! The heart trembles joyfully. Easter is truly a holiday.
And just recently, people went to church with willows to meet Christ joyfully and solemnly.

Two girls come out with willow branches. Read a poem by R.A. Kudasheva.

Child reader 1:
Little camels, little camels, children!
All bunches for a penny.
Caps are visible here and there;
The satin earring is bored:
The dawn is bursting behind bars
Willows, red willows
You won't find it better anywhere.

Child reader 2:
In the evening to the holy church
The children will go with the willow,
They will take a wax candle,
They will light it with quiet prayer;
The branches tremble with happiness,
Little camels, little camels, children!
Just a penny bunch...

They distribute willow branches to the girls.
All the girls stand scattered around the hall and sing the song " Palm Sunday" with movement.

Chorus:
Palm Sunday -
The whole earth is awakening.
Hands with primary branches - (Slowly raise their hands with branches up).
Reaching for the skies. - (The willow is slowly lowered.)
Palm Sunday,
In Jerusalem singing, - (They raise the willow up).
God's blessing to all fields and forests. - (Sway the branches).

Leading:
We know that on the bright holiday of Easter there is a custom of giving eggs.
And what letters can you see on easter eggs? (children answer).
Christ is Risen! - froze on the varnished egg.

Child reader:
I painted an egg
A branch, and on the branch there is a bird.
The cloud flies into space
Into the blue sky.
In the middle there is a pattern,
And below - Christ is Risen!

Based on the text of the poem, children make up big picture from drawings. (Easter egg, willow branches, bird, letters XB, temple, cloud).

Leading:
Christ is Risen! - what wonderful words, they contain both the victorious message of life over death and the joy of eternal life.

Two children read a poem. One has a white egg in his hand, the other has a red one.

Child reader 1:
Dear egg for Christ's day.
And for a long time I didn’t know: how and why?
Only the words of God He Himself revealed to me,
So that I value a red egg.
I once picked up a fresh egg.
And I looked at him thoughtfully for a long time.
No bones, no beak, no feather, no legs.
I couldn’t see the bird in that egg.
How does this happen, where to find the answer,
The bird suddenly comes out of the egg into the light.

Child reader 2:
This is where God created a miracle,
That he turned a raw egg into a bird.
I understood that example, dear to my heart,
This is what the Lord once did with me.
The same power of God will gather my ashes,
And from the dust the body will come to life again.
This is our guarantee, miracle of miracles,
The firstborn from the dead, Christ Himself is Risen.
He died on the cross, that's how He loved us,
That He shed His blood for us, sinners.
And since then the testicle, red as blood,
Reminds me of His love.

Leading:
Christ is Risen! - people greet each other.
Christ is Risen! - the birds echo them.
Christ is Risen! - bells ring in temples.

Child reader:
"On a Bright Night"
It’s a sin to sleep this night;
Look out the window;
There's light everywhere people are waiting,
They'll be going to church soon.
At midnight the bell will ring,
It will fly to the skies,
And it will wake you up with a wave
Heaven is with earth.
It's a sin to sleep this night,
It's almost midnight... It's dark...
To those who, awake, wait,
A bright holiday is coming!

Children are invited to listen to a story (read by a teacher or one of the parents.)
"The Joy of the Morning" by Valery Milovatsky.

"Joy of the Morning"
There is a translucent night over the city. At this time in St. Petersburg there are just such sensitive nights. Everybody sleeps. Only one boy is awake - he is waiting. His dad, a forester, left to inspect new plantings and promised to return for Easter. And the boy was waiting for him.

And also, his mother, putting him to bed, said that Easter would begin that night - and he was afraid to miss the moment when Christ would rise. He wanted to see: the darkness would suddenly dissipate, and it would become as light as day, and the angels, the birds, the animals, and the whole earth would rejoice...
Lying in bed, he listened to the silence for a long time, peered into the night sky through the window - and waited. Some rustles, sighs, creaks, flickering, when he closed his eyes, made him shudder. Sometimes he heard dull blows - apparently it was the ice floes moving along the Neva hitting the embankment.

In the corner, opposite the bed, a lamp was burning in front of the image of St. Seraphim of Sarov. This encouraged and calmed the boy. And he remembered, either in reality or in a dream...
In those years when the great Pushkin lived, an unprecedented saint appeared in Russia. Every day he greeted everyone with the words: “Christ is Risen, my joy!” Because he himself firmly believed in this and wanted all people to also believe in the Resurrection, to wake up from their unbelief. In secret, he accomplished the feat of his life - more than once he was in the clutches of death: he died from illnesses, robbers killed him, but the Mother of God, to whom he constantly prayed, miraculously saved him. He voluntarily subjected himself to the most difficult tests. For a thousand days and nights, praying, he knelt on a stone under open air. And how many unknown feats he accomplished!

And God gave him a lot. Joy embraced everyone who came to him; others saw the radiance that emitted from his face. He was ready to console, caress, and say a friendly and cheerful word to everyone, so that before the face of the Lord everyone’s spirit would always be cheerful and not sad. For the sake of this joy, he bore a heavy cross, because “true joy is the fruit and companion of the cross.” The Holy Elder of the Resurrection, the Elder of joy, love and victory, how he loved children!
And the boy saw this radiant old man, saw the golden domes of the temples. And from this radiance everything around came to life: apples bloomed, bees buzzed; even the old half-dried ash tree blossomed its translucent leaves, like angel feathers. The boy looked at it with all his eyes - he wanted to run, hug every apple tree...
And he would like to stay there, in this wonderful dream, but something extraordinary, jubilant with the ringing of a bell, picked him up, reached the depths of his soul and filled him with joy and love.

It was impossible not to wake up in order to feel and see this. It sounded, called, shone, it was full of such ringing power that you wanted to rush into his arms. To him who loves and is the only one - the risen and resurrecting Jesus Christ. He was beyond sleep - then the boy realized that he was sleeping, and was afraid that he had slept through the most important thing, which could not be missed.

And through his sleep, through his closed eyelids, he felt that some special day had come - and he had to quickly jump out of his sleep towards it unusual day. When he opened his eyes, the day rang and sparkled, the air itself sang: “Christ is Risen! Christ is Risen!"
"Christ is Risen!" - said the father, and they kissed. The father took his son in his arms, brought him to the window, opened it and said: “Look how everything blooms! Here it is, Resurrection! Yesterday until late evening I walked around a distant section of the forest. At night I returned through the forest. It was dark and creepy. Only the stars were shining. And I thought: “But on this night Christ rose again.”

And he shouted loudly to the whole forest: “Glory to you, Lord! Glory to Your Resurrection!” And suddenly the dark forest sky lit up with many multi-colored flashes. Rainbows shone in waves in the sky, illuminating the dark forest, as if angels from heaven answered: “Truly He is Risen!” and you were probably fast asleep at that time, my joy!”

Sounds bell ringing(audio cassette), a curtain opens, behind which a “Temple” is decorated on the wall.
All children approach the “temple”.

Child reader:
I quietly enter the temple with my mother,
I'm not being naughty at all.
Let God see for Himself
How I love Him
The royal gates are shining,
I'll light a candle
And before the image of Christ
I'll whisper forgiveness.

Children sing the song "Temple".
According to tradition, children and parents go to the temple located next to the kindergarten and ring the bells.
The holiday ends with the Easter meal and Easter games.

For the first time in my life, I felt real Easter joy on New Year. This was in the mid-90s. My wife and I were still neophytes, and there were few open churches, and we were just starting our church life in one of the churches on the outskirts of Moscow. This year, the first of January fell on a Sunday - a small Easter for any Christian. And so, on the advice of our confessor, we began to prepare for Communion for the New Year. Who remembers, in the USSR it was the most joyful and bright holiday. After communion, we returned and experienced completely new feelings. A few holiday-worn passengers were traveling on the subway. Most of them were having a hard time after a wild night. A beautiful and very unhappy girl sat in front of us. It was clear that she felt very bad at heart. Our almost one-year-old son Pavel was with us. He caught her attention and she handed him the orange. “Waaaah,” Pashkin’s voice rang out and the satisfied child grabbed the orange object. This immediate reaction made the girl feel better. The New Year itself has ceased to be the main and important holiday for me.
One must prepare for real Easter joy through fasting and prayer. Most “parishioners” look with curiosity and distrust at the night religious procession and if they enter the temple after it, they quickly leave the service. They take with them only a small fraction of this joy. Long and hard service Holy Week unknown to them too, but it is precisely empathy with Christ at this time, real feeling losses these days allow us to feel the joy of the Resurrection in its entirety. Christian grief has a completely different quality. In the depths of the heart there is always hope and real knowledge of future joy. This feeling at one time made it possible for the myrrh-bearing women and the Apostle John not to escape from the cross.
Don't escape the cross!
Only a warm, pure heart
Maybe in this trouble
Fear and weakness in the legs
Overcome!
Loved Christ
Myrrh-bearers, strong in spirit,
Was alive in their hearts
Taken down from the tree of the cross
Lord!
How happy all these holy people were at the Resurrection of Christ!
Before this event, Christ showed us another miracle - the resurrection of Lazarus of the Four Days. Everyone who believes and follows Christ will be resurrected when Christ wishes it, and we also rejoice in our participation in this miracle.
In addition to the services that we try to attend before Easter, there are also joyful chores. We clean the house in Maundy Thursday, bake Easter cakes and paint Easter eggs. In each Christian family there are their own Marthas and Marys who choose this or that small feat before Easter. Both feats are important and necessary, but Mary’s good attention to the words of Christ and prayer are higher. However, children often understand more clearly Martha’s feat, which culminates in wonderful decorations on Easter cakes and Easter eggs. Many older people returned to church precisely because of their bright childhood memories of these wonderful customs.
This year there is something new in my family: my wife and daughters have learned to braid eggs with ribbons and beads. You can give them to friends and acquaintances and share with them the most important and important things in life. Orthodox man Easter joy!

We are not forgotten by God

We are not forgotten by God -
Easter is coming again
And the road is not easy
Leading us to the holiday again.

Having gone through a difficult way of the cross,
We had compassion for Christ.
With faith on this Sunday day
They labored at the post.

Now let's rejoice together
With sky, sun and earth.
Joy fills the heart -
After all, Christ is dear to us!

Maxim Terekhov 2016

Lent lasts forty long days, with Passion Day - almost all fifty. And if we add preparatory weeks(in the spiritual sense), then even longer. You begin to look forward to Lent in advance (often with some fear), and prepare for it. Then you fast to the best of your ability, and in the end everything usually becomes especially difficult, sometimes even painful. Physical strength leaves, moral strength ends even earlier, and Passionate usually is some kind of apotheosis of powerlessness: you just want to sleep, eat and not be touched by anyone. Nothing this year yet, thanks to the weekend, but usually it’s much harder. And you are already waiting, waiting for the Holiday, and, what to hide, and for various, quite prosaic earthly reasons too :)

And so he came Holy holiday Easter, what joy! Joy of different nature. At the service, of course, you shout with delight, “Truly He is Risen!” and sing along to the Easter canon. You listen to the word of John Chrysostom, take communion with many people together and experience an incredible spiritual uplift. It seems that this joy will now be with you constantly, and in general - everything will now be good and wonderful. Then breaking the fast, how could we do without it, it’s a separate moment. The main thing is that the desire to eat a piece of meat as soon as possible does not block the spiritual joy, although I personally understand this desire very much. It’s good, of course, when everything is combined—physical and spiritual joy. And sometimes you even think: it’s good that you didn’t fast strictly (to one degree or another, according to various reasons), but you don’t experience such food lust.

Get some sleep after the service, and then break your fast again, finally lie down and relax, take a walk if the weather permits, in general, for for a long time giving yourself a real full day off is also very festive. True, at the end of the day people usually start to hiccup slightly and suffer from stomach pain, but this will pass :). And then new workdays begin. You quickly get used to non-lenten food, fasting is forgotten, everyday life, everyday affairs and problems drag on again, and now - where is the Holiday? Even memories of him are quickly erased...

How so? The fast lasted so long, but the holiday was only a day? A week? But Easter lasts the same as Lent, 40 days! My older children sometimes begin to be indignant, saying that what an injustice it is, since the fast was 40 days, then it should not be a continuous week, but also forty days. As an adult, I understand that sausage and ice cream will soon become boring and will hardly help to maintain joy. What will help? How to enjoy Easter all forty days before the celebration of the Holiday? You can’t put Easter joy in a jar and put it in the refrigerator.

The easiest way to retain this joy is in the first week, in Light. Here you have Easter hours instead of morning and evening rules, and daily services, and the singing of the Easter canon. The prayer before meals is not an ordinary one, but “Christ is Risen...”. In addition, the everyday side - the fast food has not yet become boring, all sorts of specific Easter foods are still available, Easter cakes and Easter cakes have not been eaten. This year there are four days off on Svetlaya - go to services, ring the bells as much as you like! It’s just that at last there is an opportunity to calmly meet with friends, go on a picnic, and rejoice together. There are also Easter holidays in Sunday schools(and in our garden), and the Easter festival.

But things will get more difficult from here on out. Again, work, worries, usual routine, can’t get out to work, and so on and so forth. What to do? To be honest, it’s always a terrible pity to part with Easter so quickly, with this special joy. It’s only once a year, with such effort, preparation goes on, and then once and that’s it... It’s a shame. Clearly something needs to be done about this!

Surely every family has little tricks that help them not to forget that Easter is still going on. For example, our children once resolutely refused to pray before eating in the usual way at the end Holy Week. But instead they demanded that we continue to sing “Christ is Risen.” So now we do this for all forty days of Easter. And this is, after all, three times a day :) And for some reason you don’t forget to sing the Easter troparion, unlike ordinary prayers before meals. You sing “Christ is risen from the dead” and again you remember - Easter, you will smile again, you will be happy. Helps a lot festive mood And easter decoration at home, all these seemingly stupid trinkets. There are colorful funny eggs hanging everywhere, some kind of Easter wreath, a willow in a vase, napkins or something else, as they say, “a small thing, but nice.”

You can additionally please yourself physically, for example, with Easter food. Once upon a time, I went to a convent closer to the Ascension. And I noticed that even though a lot of time had passed since Easter, there were still Easter cakes on the table for the meal. During the week only for table decoration, and on weekends for treats. This tradition of baking Easter cakes for forty days before Easter seems very good to me. It would be nice to bake Easter cakes and make Easter. Otherwise, you cook all this only once a year, everyone loves it and waits for it, so why not repeat it? Both for taste and for mood!

These are all, of course, such everyday, “low” ways to prolong joy. The main thing is still in the temple. After all, at Matins all this time the Easter canon is sung instead of the usual. And the Easter “Christ is Risen!” sounds. And the religious procession after each liturgy during the entire Bright Week. (By the way, in the same monastery there is a religious procession for all forty days). Also, the Royal Doors are open all week during services. In general, this first week is the time to soak up the Easter mood, and then try to preserve it for as long as possible. And don’t despair too much if you didn’t succeed – God forbid, this Easter is not the last!

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